Old Dominion University

I was really disappointed with ODU. My classes are horrible. Half of the time they do not even have the classes that you are required to take. I am an international business major so I am required to study abroad and the study abroad office is horrible and completely unhelpful. I am out-of-state so it is a ton of money last year living in the dorms cost me almost 30,000 dollars.

The dorms are horrible. Everyone has bug problems. The RAs are rude and not helpful. Security is in the dorm at night but during the day you are on your own. I know so many people that had there laptops and other belongs stolen. There is AC but half the time it does not work. They even shut out water off for a few days because the said the water bill was too high. To top it off I lived in Whitehurst the nicest of the freshman dorms. After freshman year everyone gets a house no one really lives in dorms. The dorms are a lot of money and so is a meal plan. Plan on paying close to ten dollars a meal.

The campus is not safe at all. There are always stabings and shootings and the cops never do anything. There are never any parties. When you apply they say there are plenty of things to do on campus activity wise but if you are white dont plan on going to any of the activities. The only good thing is the sports, football and basketball are the shit. If you play a sport this is a good school for you cause we are not a good D1 school but yet we are D1!

The food is not that bad but there is not enough room in the cafateria so dont plan on eatting between 12 to 1 cause you will have to wait at least twenty minutes for food and then even longer for a table.

Do not plan on talking to your advisor cause they really do not care about you. You will never see them. You can choose between lecture or small classes so do not worry about that. We are in a city but it is a very small city. If you are from the north it is kinda south here so you might hate that cause I do.

Keep in mind when you read reviews of schools that general people write reviews to bash the school. I was looking at another school and got a little discouraged when I read all the reviews. If someone likes the school then they would not think to write about it online.The best part of ODU is the new gym and the football team. But keep in mind that it is almost impossible to get tickets to a game. Also the new gym is great but they spent so much money on that that they had to drop faculty and lessen classes. ODU is trying to be like Virginia Tech so they are accepting everyone. Last year's freshman class had around 2,500 students this year they have around 5,000. Oh yeah ROTC is really big here so if you are into that then you might like ODU.

1st Year Female -- Class 2012

Faculty Accessibility: A, Social Life: F

It's all politics at ODU. I hope you like hearing about race and gender politics, because you will hear about these things on an almost constant basis.

ODU is very diverse. Which is good.
Now, if only the campus would stop reminding us every five minutes.
If you are black, gay, female, transgender, or just neurotic, ODU will bend over backward to accommodate you, and push your politics.

If you are not black, gay, female, or transgender, the college really doesn't care about you. (Male students will be viewed as sexual predators, and potential rapists, until proven otherwise. God help you if someone gets pissed and makes an accusation against you.)

Favoritism is definitely a problem here. Almost all of the staff in the financial aid office are black and female. (No discrimination here at all. [sarcasm])

The surrounding city is a dump, with a pretty high crime rate. You will read about another crime committed near campus at least once a week. Typically a break in or armed robbery. (Every other month a shooting will be mentioned.) Do NOT commute by bus. Apart from having a horrible public transportation system, there are a lot of homeless people harassing you for money.

Good luck meeting people here. This is the east coast, if you try to initiate a conversation most of the people will look at you like you're nuts. Worse yet, the women's center posts flyers mentioning rape all over the place. If you're hoping to meet a nice girl here, forget it. The girls will look at you with disdain and suspicion.

Finally, ODU loves to milk their students for money. The food court meals or horribly overpriced, the vending machines are overpriced, and the textbooks are horribly overpriced. (If you try to work around this and buy from online vendors, ODU gets custom edition textbooks exclusive to ODU.) I hope you like social justice. Because that's pretty much all you will hear about on campus.

4th Year Male -- Class 2016

Collaboration/Competitive: A-, University Resource Use/ spending: F

Minorities and Women are the #1 theme here at ODU. If you fall into either of these you'll get that extra support and push and find an easier time finding friends and activities to do around campus.

If you're a white male trying to find your place, you get constant reminders of how you're ruining the world by being male and white, and why you should be ashamed for existing. I was required to take a 2 week course on 'rape-prevention' when I was pledging a fraternity. I never ended up joining the fraternity because it cost $600 a semester, they weren't allowed to have a house on campus, and they didn't do a whole lot as a group either.

I see lots of depressed faces while walking around to my classes. It doesn't surprise me because of how easily isolated it is for people to become while attending here.

Yes, this school is diverse- but after 3 years here I wish I went to a more traditional University. All of the diverse students here stay within their circles. While they're friendly to other students, they don't actually befriend students outside of this ethnicity or origin country. Most of the 'white' kids on campus commute to the surrounding area, are in ROTC, or are odd peculiar people who lack basic social skills and human understanding.The school also seems to employ 80% blacks, and 20% international students. Again if you're white and trying to find a job on campus, you probably shouldn't even bother. It doesn't help that ODU's dining company owns the majority of stores and restaurants in the village, who all are employed by African-Americans. My Jewish friend, who is white, applied to every restaurant at the university and never received a response back. He should have checked the option on the application to not disclose his race, he probably would have gotten a call back if he had.

3rd Year Male -- Class 2017

Social Life: D-, Education Quality: F